Monday, August 11, 2008

I Tried to Teach My Child with Books;He Gave Me Only Puzzled Looks.I Tried to Teach My Child with Words;They Passed Him by Often Unheard.Despairingly, I Turned Aside;"How Shall I Teach this Child," I cried?Into My Hand He Put the Key,"Come," He Said, "Play with Me."~ Author Unknown

I think a lot about being a good parent. Wondering if I am one. How can I be better? Will it make a difference? Do I pay enough attention? Do I pay too much attention? Does Kiki suffer because I don’t always want to play? How much do my actions, thoughts, feelings affect my daughter? Do I even deserve this beautiful child that has entered our life?

It seems like Kiki went from being two to being three in the blink of an eye. I feel like I missed a year somehow and want to do my best to make the most of the time we spend together. I want her to enjoy most moments in life, to be a good person, to respect others, and to respect herself. I want her to be thoughtful, educated, humble, relaxed, and confident. Not too much to hope for, to strive for, is it? How will we teach her?

Not every moment is going to be some profound learning experience, but she is always watching. We spent the weekend visiting with Meemaw (fun trip to American Girl), planting a tomato plant, and attending a “getting to know you” brunch with her new friends from next year’s class at school. Simple, but fun. She does see how we interact with (and treat) other people. How fun it is to be with family. How we can't get everything we want. And, the magic of the word please.

Which brings me to Kiki’s marriage proposals. A few weeks ago, the mother of one of Kiki’s great friends at school told me a funny story. Her son, Jed (on the seesaw with Kiki in the pics), was asking her if he would get married someday. She told him she hoped so. He asked her who he might marry. She said she didn’t know, they’d have to wait and see. He asks, how about Kiki? She said sure!

At the brunch, another mother whose son is in Kiki’s class told me she had a very similar conversation recently with her son. He also asked if he could marry Kiki :-D.

So, with all the worrying, I suppose we must be doing something right. By the way, we’d be very happy with either suitor, but Kiki has declared herself too young to get married ;-).

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.~ Albert Schweitzer

My friend Eric (Allyson’s hubby) cut out this cartoon (if you click on it, it will come up larger so you can read it) for me which is funny on it’s own, but even funnier to me because he is always teasing me about putting up blog posts almost every day.

He told Allyson she didn’t need to see me, talk to me on the phone, or even email me, because she can find out everything that is going on in my life just by looking at the website. I like sarcasm :-D. Really.

So, it has been a while, for me anyway, since I’ve written anything. We had another international visit this weekend from one of Amir’s oldest friends and his family. Amir and Oren served in the army together and spent many months in tents on the border of Lebanon. I guess that can bond you pretty quickly.

Elanit joined their group early on, and is generally the only girl allowed when their guy friends get together in Israel. Guy and Joey round out the family and are amazing kids. Such a cool family- I'm glad I inherited them with Amir.

Today Kiki had her first visit to the Dentist. It could have gone either way- heaven knows we struggle with getting her to brush her teeth- but once again she was a complete pro.

She went with the Dentist without Mommy, and he said she did everything they asked without even the littlest fuss.

In fact, she really enjoyed it, and everywhere we went after (including a willing trip to the medical doctor) she announced that she was a big girl who went to the dentist today!

She also told everyone that she and Mommy are twins (we were dressed alike, but I don’t think they bought the twin theory ;-D).

Kiki decided to become a photographer today as well. The pictures of the two of us from today, she took. One of them you can see we are holding hands. That’s because she told me “I want to take a holding hands picture of us together”. So sweet! I also have a gazillion that she took of just me and “her” new carpet, but won’t bore you with all of those ;-D…

She had me smiling and laughing all day- euphoric at times. Do you know what I mean when I say that today was one of the best days of my life yet nothing extraordinary happened? That’s what children do.